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Future Publishing
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Gates To Hell? Sounds like a great game, doesn't it? Just look at that great title screen. Wow, with a great title screen like that, how can it not be a great game?
Gates To Hell
Oh dear, someone's got a bee in their bonnet over a certain operating system and its company's CEO. So much so that they thought they'd make a CPC game out of it.
Load the game up and you are introduced to the main character, via an impressive title screen. The menu screen appears and so does a rather annoying theme tune. You can choose to play with keys or joystick.
The game's mission is to penetrate the almighty bunker of Microchoft and rid the world of the terrible operating system that is Windows To Hell, developed by the evil Mr. Gates. Stop giggling at the back there, I'm trying to build the suspense here. Your mission is hampered by the annoyance of traps and worm guards?! Timing, trial and error with your movement can bypass these though and soon you will be bringing down the Microchoft Empire. If you get hit or mistime a jump, your energy bar will start turning red. If this turns red all the way it's game over. The graphics, while well drawn, are minimalist. The theme tune is extremely irritating, and the in-game effects are limited to beeps and blips.
![Gates To Hell](/ills_small/amstrad/cez_games_studio/tapes/Gates-To-Hell-002.gif)
What really annoys is the frustratingly awkward gameplay. Arrows fire endlessly across the screen from seemingly nowhere, worms and bat-like creatures patrol back and forth across the screen and you end up wandering down dead ends only to die at the hands of multiple arrow wounds to the rear end. If you can be bothered to play the game there are actually keys to find to gain access to the levers, which I presume opens the entrance to the bunker. Good luck.
The presentation of the game is excellent and includes a cassette tape inlay and instructions. It makes you wonder if only they had spent the same amount of effort and time on the gameplay then they could have had something special. But no, the game has been used for personal attacks at someone who doesn't give a monkeys.
Oh, the irony, if there was no Windows operating system, then CPC emulators wouldn't exist and we wouldn't have to play this terrible, terrible game.
Second Opinion
![Gates To Hell](/ills_small/amstrad/cez_games_studio/tapes/Gates-To-Hell-003.gif)
When I first heard about this new game I was looking forward to playing it. While I was slightly disappointed, I don't think the game is actually as bad as Adam states. Sure it misses all its targets in its attempts at satire, but the game itself is a good old-fashioned platformer. Not bad, but not great."
First Day Target Score
Enter the bunker.
Verdict
Graphics 64%
P. Without doubt the best thing about the game.
![Gates To Hell](/ills_small/amstrad/cez_games_studio/tapes/Gates-To-Hell-004.gif)
Sound 32%
N. Irritating theme music.
Grab Factor 48%
N. All new games get some interest...
Staying Power 31%
N. ...no matter how poor or boring.
Overall 34%
It's good that the CPC still gets great new games released for it after all these years, it's just a shame that this isn't one of them.